This was the summer of the center, even the summer of the centers. In the NBA today, it's so rare to hear centers, plural, for there to be so much discussion of big men, period, and so there was reason to think that it might carry over. Dwight Howard was shipped to the Lakers, Andrew Bynum to the 76ers, and there was reason to think that Howard might be the missing piece in the Lakers' plans to take over the world. They were just missing a center, right? Right?
A center, the missing piece? We should have realized it was outlandish back then. Not in this point-guard driven league, where only a handful of teams have anything approaching a true center and big men are role players, hybrids, anything but the pure post players of two decades ago.
And so Howard is in Los Angeles, missing free throw after free throw as the Lakers attempt to hack their way above .500, which has thus been a futile quest. NeNe has played in just seven games in Washington, starting none and excelling in few. ...

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